Connect the Dots
by JamesTheGreater
Summary: Somewhere in the back of his mind, Freddie had known all along. It says Hurt/Comfort, but there is no comfort.


**I don't own iCarly. Period.**

**Ugh, I am so very sorry. I apologize for being absent for quite an amount of time. I just had tests and junk and I was grounded for this past week. I just had so much to do and I couldn't get around to writing anything. And I couldn't bring myself to write an author's note because I know people hate author's notes that are posted as chapters or stories (I know I do), so I wrote a story to compensate. Also, I probably will not be updating any of my other stories anytime soon. I might, but don't count on anything until after school ends. (May 28). Again, I am truly sorry for slacking off.**

* * *

Freddie sipped a tasteless strawberry-banana smoothie as he stared out at the lake. The trees were naked and barren, geese flew overhead in a tight V, and every now and then, a chilling gust of wind ruffled the collar of his jacket. The end of bright sunny days and warm clear nights, winter, to Freddie, was describable with one word.

Inevitable.

The parallels were obvious.

It was unclear when the blue sky had turned a shade of dull gray. They had unnoticeably drifted into danger.

The transition that was the season of autumn had come and gone in a flash of red, orange, and yellow. The break-up seemed so sudden.

However, in the farthest recesses of his memories, Freddie managed to discern certain events that foretold the coming of the coldest month. The signs were there. Like stones in the mud, they blended in. But if he cared enough to take off his shoes, his toes touched the invisible, rounded edges and they scraped against the rough surfaces.

Her decision was inevitable.

The first time was in an empty classroom.

_Freddie headed toward lunch, hungry after a particularly exhausting lesson with Mr. Howard. As he neared the end of the hall, he heard the muffled voice of one of his AV buddies. Freddie remembered that Shane had wanted to borrow his HDMI cable for a multimedia project, so he turned around and walked back along the hallway until he reached Room E-105. Shane laughed from the other side and surprisingly, a girlish giggle joined him._

_Freddie opened the door._

"_Shane, I have the—Sam?"_

_Shane was sitting in a front desk with what looked like the contents of a filing cabinet strewn around him. Sam sat next to him, leaning her chair back on its two back legs and her feet stacked on another pile of papers._

_She smiled at him. "What's up, Freddie?"_

_A feeling of uneasiness entered his stomach._

"_What are you doing here? With Shane?" He glanced at the other boy who remained stone still._

_Sam dropped herself back down with a crash and held up a couple papers._

"_I'm helping Shane with his English. 'Cuz, you know, you AV nerds suck at everything that's not math or science."_

_The feeling in his gut lessened._

_Shane nodded his head vigorously. "I'm failing and Briggs said I'm gonna have to go to summer school if I don't get my grade up."_

"_So he asked me because I happen to have a perfect A," Sam announced smugly. She stood up. "And I believe it's time for lunch. Later, Shaneturd. Let's roll, Freddie."_

_She grabbed his hand and lead him out of the classroom. Freddie looked back through the little window to see Shane collecting his work with a anxious look upon his face._

_He looked back down at the top of Sam's blonde head. She started to swing their entwined hands back and forth._

"_I hope they have ham today."_

So he believed her. And Shane's grade **did** improve that semester.

The second time was at Wendy's "Winter Holidays Bash".

_Freddie pushed his way through the crowd of drunken teens. He checked his watch. 45 minutes. The party had begun 45 minutes ago and already Wendy's house resembled a WWII battlefield. It didn't help that the hostess herself was in her parents' bedroom with Griffin and Carly._

_Shaking his head, Freddie poured himself a cup of punch. He took a sip and immediately spit it out. It was more rum than fruit juice. Freddie wasn't a light weight, but he decided that there needs to be at least one responsible teen from their trio. He grabbed a bottle of water from the untouched pile and took a swig, rehydrating his dry mouth._

_Freddie stared out at the seniors, Ridgeway's finest making complete fools out of themselves. Wendy's dad's four thousand dollar sound system pumps out beat after beat, invisibly controlling the movements of the desensitized students._

_He caught a flash of his girlfriend's blonde hair. His mouth suddenly became dry again._

_She was in the middle of the dance floor in a human sandwich with Tasha and Shane._

_The bubbling, hot feeling of jealousy rose up in his chest. He threw the water to the ground and shoved bodies left and right as he marched determinedly to the three. _

_He grabbed Sam's arm and jerked her out from in between Shane and Tasha._

_Angrily, he began, "Sam, what the hell are you—"_

_Then he noticed. Shane and Tasha were still grinding, albeit closer together due to the lack of Sam in the middle. And Sam was now swaying her hips back and forth, rubbing against Freddie as much as possible._

_Over the music he heard her shout, "How come you're not moving?!"_

_Freddie turned her around. Her eyes were shining and unfocussed and her breath stunk of alcohol. _

"_Sam—are you drunk?"_

"_No, I...I don't like j-jellybeans," she slurred as she tripped over her own feet. _

_Freddie sighed exasperatedly. "You're coming home with me. Right now."_

_He lead her to the door, ignoring her protests._

_When they were settled in his pick-up, she finally remembered their third friend. _

"_B-but what about C-car—Car...Car..."_

"_Carly is spending the night with a couple friends."_

"_Oh. O-okay."_

She was drunk. The next day she couldn't recall ever going to the party in the first place.

So Freddie decided to let it go.

The third time was the week before finals.

_The carnival was in town._

_But instead of going with everyone else, Freddie was holed up in his room trying to absorb as much information as he could._

_He glanced at the clock and sighs. 11:23. He felt a twinge of regret as he imagines all his friends laughing and fooling around. Sometimes it isn't easy being the good kid._

_Freddie refocused on the equation in front of him. But before he can put pencil to paper, a loud slam of the door reverberatds through the apartment._

"_FREDDIE!"_

_He listened as Sam's obviously excited voice sought him out. She burst through the door to his room, making way towards the bed._

"_You shoulda gone, Freddie. It was frickin' awesome!"_

_Freddie calmly put down his pencil._

"_I mean, there were a buncha rides and chiz, and the food was delicious. Did you know they have 2 foot long hot dogs? Well, I had three of those. And like ten cotton candies. And Shane bought me a funnel cake—"_

"_Shane was there?" Freddie spun around to see Sam stretched out on his bed with a giant plush ham._

_She raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Yeah...everyone went. Everyone. 'Cept you, of course, 'cuz you're a bookaholic."_

_The pain in his chest came back. "And how'd you win that ham?"_

_She shook her head. "I didn't win it."_

_Tentatively, he asked,"Who did?"_

"_Shane-dunce won it for me."_

_Freddie abruptly stood up._

"_I have to go to the bathroom."_

_He hadn't eaten anything and yet he still felt like throwing up._

She was happy. He couldn't have denied that. That was the point wasn't it? As long as she was happy, it didn't matter who made her happy, right? The little voice in the back of his head agreed.

Yes.

But to her, it mattered. Which was probably why she showed up that night.

_It was pouring. Water cascaded down the window, casting shifting shadows of Freddie's face. He loved watching the rain. Even he wasn't out there, it was still refreshing to see the millions of little droplets cover the city in a flowing, liquid blanket. It was almost as if—_

_Knock. Knock._

_Freddie tore his gaze from the window and heaved himself off the bed._

_When he reached the door, he peered through the peephole._

_His girlfriend was pacing back and forth outside._

"_Hey, Sam."_

_Freddie leaned forward for a hug, but she breezed by, leaving the soft scent of Sam trailing through the air. She plopped down on the couch. Her usually lively demeanor was replaced with a somber, serious attitude._

_Freddie walked over and sat down next to her. His hand found her smaller one and he laced their fingers together gently._

"_What's wrong, Sam? Are you all right?"_

_She stared wordlessly at their entwined hands._

"_Sam? What happened? Did something—"_

"_I'm sorry."_

_Freddie tilted his head questioningly._

"_For what? I don't think you did anything to apologize for...," his stomach jolted, "...unless...you're about to..."_

_She yanked her hand out of his and jumped up._

"_I-I'm sorry, Freddie."_

_He slowly shook his head. "No...please."_

_For the first time in a long time, Sam's eyes were genuinely sorrowful._

"_I-I think we—we have to break up."_

_Freddie's chest ached and his stomach turned fully inside out. He felt like he was falling. His voice was full of anguish as he asked, "Why?"_

_Sam looked down at her shoes. "There's someone else."_

"_Who?"_

_She shook her head. "I...no. I can't tell you"_

_He clasped his hands together and gazed imploringly up at the blonde._

"_Just tell me. Please, Sam. Whoever it is, I'll be just like them, Sam. I swear I'll change. Please, just don't let this go. I'll be whoever you need."_

_Sam looked like she was about to cry. "No, Freddie. Don't. Don't change. You're perfect the way you are."_

"_Then why—"_

"_You're the perfect guy for some girl out there. I know it. But to me...to me you're Freddie Benson. A nice, sweet, nubbish boy who's great but not what I'm looking for."_

_She carefully sat on the coffee table across from Freddie._

"_Sometimes...things just happen. I'm sorry, Freddie. I really am."_

_Freddie put his head in his hands._

"_Did—did you ever like me? Like for real?" _

_She gave a sigh. "Yes. I actually had a crush on you for a while. So I decided to act on it. Remember? At the dance? And I did like you, Freddie. But it sort of faded. Like your crush on Carly. I tried my best to be your girlfriend. I tried to save what we had. But eventually, I stopped feeling like your girlfriend and more of just—your friend that you kiss. We just didn't work out the right way."_

_Freddie's breathing was labored. He felt Sam tentatively place a hand on his shoulder._

"_Freddie?"_

_He didn't answer._

_She leaned forward and kissed the top of his head._

"_Goodbye, Freddie."_

_He heard her footsteps walk to the door. She opened it._

_He whispered, "Goodbye, Sam."_

_She paused for a second before leaving with a quiet click._

And he cried.

The hot tears fell from his eyes, blocking out the cold, biting wind. They flowed very much like the rain was that night.

Freddie remembered that he was still in the park. He wiped his face with his sleeve and hastily looked around to see if anyone had caught him.

No one had seen.

He threw away the half finished smoothie and began the long walk home.

All along the way, Freddie kept repeating the same phrase to himself.

"I should have known."

But knowing didn't make it easier like he thought it would.

Because even though she broke his heart, he still loved her with every single piece of it.

* * *

**I have to thank KingxLeon21 for helping me with this. I sorta died in the middle but he helped me through it. I know it isn't even as close to anything that he has written, but I tried. :) (That was a little advertisement if you didn't know. Check out his stuff.)**

**And I will start on my overdue reviews. (You know who I'm talking about.)**

**Anyways...please review!**


End file.
